DEVASTATED: Syrian-born Fawaz Alghofari wants greater public awareness regarding Assad’s brutal regime
DEVASTATED: Syrian-born Fawaz Alghofari wants greater public awareness regarding Assad’s brutal regime

Drop food not bombs!

A Syrian refugee living in Leeds, Fawaz Alghofari, is holding a vigil in front of Leeds Town Hall this weekend for Syrian civilians affected by President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Approximately 150 people are expected to turn up to the town hall steps on Sunday 17th January from 5pm to support the plight of Syrian people.

Residents in the beleaguered town of Madaya are just some of the civilians who have seen food supplies cut off with over 40,000 people now facing starvation and death. Reports issued by the WHO say that children are ‘too weak to play’.

Fawaz, who was born in Damascus in 1970, does not want to stand by and watch the disaster unfold further.

He said: “It’s devastating to see your homeland people dying from starvation. Watching babies die without any food supply because Assad’s brutal regime has been besieging this town for more than six months now. The death toll is increasing every day.”

Fawaz wants to highlight the humanitarian crisis with his peaceful vigil.

“We need to make sure that British people know about this situation and also the British government needs to step up,” he added.

“We feel the most important support we can get at the moment is from the British people. We want them to pressurise the British government to drop food instead of dropping bombs. Our main issue is to save those civilians.”

Fawaz is standing for equal rights and democratic rights for everyone in Syria.

“I have two sisters in Damascus who are trapped. They can’t get out of Syria. I worry about all Syrians.”

In an interview with CBC News, Elizabeth Hoff described her conversations with people in Madaya when she arrived as part of an aid convoy on Monday. 

She said: “They didn’t talk about politics; they didn’t talk about the Syrian crisis. They all talked about the lack of food and that they were hungry.

“A little boy of six years said that he had a brother at home who was so hungry he couldn’t come to wait for the food [being delivered by the convoy] but he hoped to bring [him] home some food.”